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Garden of the Gods, Shawnee National Forest. 

In celebration of my 29th birthday, and the last birthday of my 20s, Z arranged a weekend trip to Southern Illinois.  I took the opportunity to unplug from the online world and allowed myself to focus on my time with family and immerse in nature. On our way to the Airbnb location, we stopped by here for light hiking since it was only ¼ miles long. 

This was the first time dogs have hiked with us, and first time in a long time for me as well.  I used to hike quite a bit with my dad in middle school since we had easy access to the mountains. I had forgotten how I much I had enjoyed hiking until this past weekend. It was such a great feeling.

Since its submergence in sea water many millions of years ago, it had created lots of unique features of sand rocks that we now see. We took some off trails around the area too, to see different views overlooking of the Shawnee National Forest. We also discovered that Lilly is an adventurous (and excellent) hiker, and Stark didn’t do so bad either. 

#birthdayweekend #hiking #traveling #year29